Biathlon 2018/Men's 20 km
Format The competition exists out of five rounds of 4 kilometres, broken up by shooting at five targets. The athletes started 30 seconds from each other, each missed target causing a minute penalty. The competitor with the fastest time after 20 kilometres is the winner. Preview Eighty-six athletes qualified for the event, with Martin Fourcade as the man to beat. He had won four out of the previous five mondial events, including a gold medal at Sochi 2014. The only gold medal he missed, was of the World Championships in 2017, when Lowell Bailey was able to beat him by 21 seconds. His current season saw an average shooting rate of 91%, and with a course fit for him, he was the big favorite. His biggest challenger would be Johannes Thingnes Boe, but his (in)experience had seen him start and shoot very fast, and with an event like the 20 kilometers, this could be fatal. Another medal contender would be Jakov Fak, who had a shooting rate of 94% in the current season, although his speed had been a bit low, compared to Fourcade and Thingnes Boe. He just came back from illness, his expectations were a bit lowered compared to an earlier stage, although he was someone to keep in mind. Other medal contenders would be Erik Lesser, the silver medalist of Sochi 2014, and Emil Hegle Svendsen, who was the Olympic champion of Vancouver 2010. The Austrian biathletes would be outsiders for a medal, with Dominik Landertinger and Simon Eder as the sharpshooters of the team. Summary The fastest first lap was run by Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin, with a time of 8:02.6 minutes, but after a slow and inaccurate shooting turn, where he lost two minutes due to penalties, favorite Martin Fourcade took the lead after a slow and focused tempo in the shooting. His four-kilometer lap, excluding the range time, was only 2 seconds faster than Johannes Thingnes Boe, though the latter missed one of his five shots, and four seconds faster than Simon Desthieux. Jesper Nelin took a comfortable third place, behind Fourcade and Desthieux, almost four seconds ahead of Arnd Peiffer and Tarjei Boe, who were only 0.1 seconds apart. The most influential shooting results were from medal contenders Johannes Thingnes Boe and Simon Eder, who were suddenly a minute behind the competition, 52nd and 57th place, respectively, and Lowell Bailey, who missed two shots and went down to 77th place. J. Thingnes Boe was able to run to the fastest second lap, and without any misses on the second shooting turn, he was able to catch up on time and positions, climbing up to a 12th position. Desthieux was able to retain his fast laps, this time skiing the second lap, but due to two misses, he lost two minutes, and dropped down to the 36th position in the provisional rankings. His lap time was the same as Germany's Johannes Kuehn, and after a miss on the first shooting turn, Kuehn missed again in the second, having a 38th position in the rankings. The fastest combined time after the first standing was retained by Martin Fourcade, this time with Sweden's Nelin and Sebastian Samuelsson behind him. Peiffer was the only other biathlete to stay within ten seconds, and Tarjei Boe completed the top 5. However, Jakov Fak and Dominik Landertinger stayed close behind, staying within the top 10. The fastest split time of the third lap was achieved by Latvian Andrejs Rastorgujevs, who missed three times in the second prone. The second-fastest intermediate of the third lap was Julian Eberhard, who climbed from 47th place to 23rd place, and J. Thingnes Boe once again had a good lap, climbing to fourth place, while Fourcade stayed faultless after another good lap, retaining his first position. Nelin stayed in second place, though he lost 13 seconds on Fourcade, retaining his advantage over Tarjei Boe, who was only 4 seconds in front of his brother Johannes. Fak entered the top 5, with Samuelsson missing a shot and dropping down to 13th place. First-started Fredrik Lindstroem and Landertinger stayed within a minute of Fourcade. In the fourth lap, J. Thingnes Boe was the only one who was able to stay within 9 minutes, but because Fourcade, who had the third time of the lap, missed twice, he was able to gain a spot to enter the top 3. Vladimir Iliev, who had the second split time, was no threat to Boe, as the former climbed up to a 24th place, after missing a shot as well. The same counted for Julian Eberhard, who climbed to a 23rd place, after the fourth intermediate time, and Simon Desthieux, who climbed to 31st place. Because Fourcade lost two minutes, the lead was taken over by Dominik Landertinger, who won 15 seconds over the new number two Jakov Fak. Sebastian Samuelsson and Benjamin Weger climbed to fourth and fifth place after all four biathletes remained faultless in the last shooting turn, in comparison to J. Thingnes Boe, who missed once again, and Fourcade, who missed twice. With one lap to go, Landertinger had a 4 second lead over Fak, and an 8 second lead over Boe, while number 4 had to compensate for over 30 seconds deficit. The fastest time of the final sprint was run by Johannes Thingnes Boe, who was 10 seconds faster than Fak and 22 seconds faster than Landertinger, assigning them to second and third place, respectively. Fourcade was able to gain a spot in the rankings, climbing to fifth place, at the expense of Benjamin Weger, while Samuelsson had the third time of the last lap, retaining his fourth place. Almost 30 seconds behind Weger, Michal Krcmar had a 6 seconds advantage over Fredrik Lindstroem, while Erik Lesser and former Olympic champion Emil Hegle Svendsen completed the top 10. Results Biathlon 2018/Men's 20 km/StartList|Startlist Biathlon 2018/Men's 20 km/Standings|Standings||true Category:Pyeongchang 2018 Events Category:Biathlon 2018